More ice cream from the Corgi Model Club

 

Here is the latest issue from the Corgi Model Club, #447 Wall's Ice Cream Van on a Ford Thames. The one without music. The original was released in March 1965 but only stayed in the order lists for a few months, disappearing the following year. The musical version, with a massive handle at the back, seems to have been a rapid rethink of what might sell by Corgi and came out later in 1965 and lasted much longer through to 1968.

The Model Club's very first issue was the musical edition, #477 in January 2020, with a second issue of this in 2021 and I wrote about the two Thames here in 2021. This, then is actually the third ice cream van you will need to have a complete collection.

This is the edition with a small road and pavement display on which we can position the ice cream seller and a small boy. I prefer this one as it looks much more realistic than the #477 with its handle. I didn't want either as a child but now I have to have all three!

The box that this arrives in is not very strong and a sort of cube shape instead of the familiar flat pack. Mine had been crushed in transit and this packing did not protect the box very well but it is still intact and I was able to straighten things out fairly well. The model itself is wrapped in paper with two lumps of white foam to prevent it moving around in the box too much. The characters arrive in a plastic bag. You may miss the stickers which are packed in the base of the plinth!

It is a very smart and accurate reproduction of the original. 

As is now usual, the typeface for the smaller text on the box is not right. Computer-generated fonts just don't match the original as they come but it should not be that difficult to adjust them to do so. I could produce the artwork for them if they ask me. The digits in the red ovals do appear better, though.

Oddities

 

I have had a couple of interesting queries in the last few days and maybe some readers will have some useful advice to assist in reaching a conclusion on them. Usually the 'odd' models which collectors show me have a pretty obvious explanation but these two have troubled me.

The first looks really quite simple at first glance. You might also jump to the conclusion that an owner of the Commer Construction Gift Set 24 illustrated below has simply remodelled the right hand section in the middle to incorporate some tyres.

If you look at the original issue, as shown first above, you'll see that there are two problems with that conclusion. First, the centre 'posts' for the tyres do not appear to be in line with where the dividing piece of polystyrene might have been and, secondly, the depth of the right hand section there looks much less than it would be on an original piece.

In favour of someone remodelling the polystyrene, it isn't a particularly neat job, although cutting a circular section and leaving a pillar is not that easy, and there is no room for the bench and milkman on the left. I cannot imagine any official Corgi production or sample with those two pieces fighting for space, nor do I see any point in their including tyres, which might even be the wrong size anyway (although I am not sure about that). The white tyres are, of course, definitely not Corgi but I allow for the possibility of someone replacing those two at some point.

All in all I do think that this must be something that someone has worked on. It might have been a factory worker who had a piece of polystyrene rejected because it hadn't been formed quite correctly. He or she made some adjustments and added some tyres and found a box lid, took it home and somehow it gets on to the market. (The owner doesn't know whether it was bought new or not but does assure me that it was his brother's and believes it to have been bought in the 60s or 70s). It could also be what I first thought - his brother managed to reshape that area and somehow move some of the polystyrene to create the pillars and more shallow profile in places.

It's not obvious though, so views welcome!

The next one is more intriguing. A Chipperfields Circus Public Address with a dark olive rear section.

My first reaction, looking at the dark colours of the box, a somewhat fuzzy image in places and what looked like flaws in the casting and paint work, was that someone had rebuilt a model and the rear section must have been the colour available from a parts supplier.

When I asked for some better photos, however, I had to rethink this. Firstly the rivets appear intact and are very much like one would expect to find on this model. Secondly, what I thought was some non-Corgi silver painting due to some splashes underneath the front bumper may be original after all as I have since seen many with a similar slip of the brush or masking.

There does appear to be some missing red paint inside the rear of the wheel arches which was one of things which made me initially suspicious that this had been repainted but the rivets really are sound and, although it is not easy to see, I am pretty sure I have noticed similar lack of red paint there on some others.

I took another look at the box and it does seem to be quite dark compared to all the boxes I have encountered but all originals have the same fuzziness in places in the image and I have to conclude that the box is OK. The genuine-looking label looks real and a reproduction box wouldn't have the partially erased number. It looks like a $US price label (although I have no idea what currency 52.00 might have been!)

So perhaps a batch of boxes for export were made in a bit darker colours. The box is hardly relevant but had it been a reproduction that might have supported my view that this had been constructed by someone.

The current owner says that he acquired this in the late 1980s or early 1990s - rather earlier than most restorations, I think, so I am inclined to discount that.

One possibility is that this could have been a Corgi production sample but weighing quite heavily against that conclusion is the fact that this comes many years after the colour scheme of Chipperfields blue and red had been settled. So to have this strange dark olive colour for a sample seems unlikely. The section does appear to be identical to the blue or yellow ones with similar type of plastic. The green colour is in the plastic not painted on it. Both characters look original and the clown can really only be replaced by dismantling the model. (I suppose he could have been broken off and reattached with glue.)

Factory samples, however, tend not to appear in a box, usually being kept in a drawer or a box of other samples - and certainly not in a box from an American store! So I am not keen on that explanation.

I did consider a colour change through exposure to light or even some liquid. That would not have left such a consistent colour, though, and somewhere we would be able to detect a little light blue or a shade more in that direction. So I feel the colour is as it was made.

All that remains are two possibilities. One is that, at some point, someone decided to repair a broken model and managed to replace that plastic element and the clown with a part that he or she obtained which was in this strange olive colour. The other is that Corgi had a batch of these rear sections supplied in the wrong colour but they went ahead and used them. One would have expected to have encountered another in such a case, although, if they did all head west across the Pond then it is just about feasible that we might not have seen any. Neither of these appeal to me as great solutions to this mystery so, again, any ideas welcome!

The giraffes return . . .

 

Well, maybe they never went away. June 1964 had seen the arrival of mother and junior giraffes in the back of a Bedford TK cab with a blue plastic box attached to the place where all sorts of rear sections had been attached in the past (and would continue to be attached for several more years, but that's another story).

In 1969 they re-appeared in the Giant Daktari Gift Set 14, in a similar box, now brown, and with a cab painted beige, and then again in the same year with a strong metal enclosure on the back of a Turbine Truck in a considerably larger scale to the Bedford, not that a scale can actually be applied to a model of something imaginary - but you'll know what I mean.

This is the Qualitoys #406 model from the very limited series I have been researching, much to the frustration of collectors who don't like these very much but, fortunately, of some interest to those who do (as there is precious little information published about this range).

Whereas the folk at Corgi decided that they needed a bigger pony than the ones issued either with #102 or #112 trailers for the Horsebox, they seem have concluded that the giraffes were fine as they were. Finding a model that had them and that was not sealed in a pack took a while but at least this one has only appeared as a truck and not a trailer.

I am still waiting to see, never mind acquire, the #709 Horsebox Trailer. If anyone has decent Dump Truck, Fire Trailer or Jumbo Dozer then I need these and they ought to be reasonably readily available. The problem with these toys is that they did get played with a lot so those I encounter are nearly always either wrecks or in original sealed packs which I don't really need.

I still have no idea what #713 might be - or even whether it exists.

Metallic blue and metallic green

In a chat a couple of days ago a collector was interested in the metallic green and metallic blue colours that Corgi had used and reckoned that several models had the same colour. I have also wondered about this and thought the best thing to do would be to get out as many as I had lying around and take a closer look.

Let's start with the mid metallic green, first seen on the MGA, Rover 90 and Citroën, with the second issue of the Austin Cambridge possibly getting it as its second colour in the two-tone edition.

Whilst the MGA and Rover 90 are very much alike, the Citroën is a bit lighter and the Austin seems to have more blue in the mix. They are certainly all pretty close but I would say that only two have the same paint. Those two being produced at the same time encourages this view too. 

There are not many in the lighter metallic green shade. One I do not have to hand is the two-tone Ford Consul which has a similar shade as part of its finish. Of the others then the Renault and TR3 are so close I am inclined to say they're the same. Both the colours of the Thames and Bentley look very much the same too but, in my opinion, differ slightly from the others. The Minivan is an outsider here, being quite different.

Now for the blues.

I'll start with the light blue finishes and the Rover and Jaguar are close but not the same. The Buick is also different with a touch more green. The other Jaguar is out on its own with nothing like it!

Amongst the darker shades of metallic blue I had expected to see some matches but no two appear the same.

In the last group of mid metallic blue shades it is the same story. When you put one next to the other, no two match here either.

Now I do know that there are also many shades within the production period for some models, especially the Ghia, Jaguar 2.4 and Rolls-Royce in this group and for the Oldsmobile and Hillman Imp in the other group. In the light green section the Bentley and Thames each have quite broad shade ranges (especially in the pale colour). So it is quite possible that, had I used some other models, we might have found more matches or more differences. I am inclined, therefore to conclude that, apart from a few models where production took place at the same time, for the vast majority of Corgis issued, no particular policy of using the same colours applied. Particularly where the different production periods are separated by several years then any match would seem accidental if, indeed, there has been any. Paint of different quality and composition will age differently too so, with some of these that I have illustrated being more than 60 years old it is difficult to be certain about anything!

With the new Corgi Model Club issues, we get to see the design sheets which specify the colours they want the Chinese factory to use. I was going to say that that might give us a guide as and when they produce some items which might be in the same colour but, unless the Club had access to records which specified the original colour then they may well just be working from an old model themselves. So that might not be of any help either.

If anyone does know all about Corgi paint suppliers or specifications for old models then do get in touch. In the meantime if you have any other matches, tell us about them.

Corgi Toys at 60: Simon Snorkel, Police Minivan, Jaguar E Type, Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover

 

Lots of new models appeared in September 2024, after a quiet August.

First is the Simon Snorkel Fire Engine, a Corgi Major issue #1127. This was a remarkable model that stayed in the dealers' lists through to 1976, pretty much unchanged. The 1964 issue came in a thick card box with a lid, later replaced by a window box with shaped polystyrene holding the model inside. There were many, many sold and good models are easy to find today. The only early variations were the metal pipes which could be silver or gold. Later the wheels would be updated to the detailed commercial vehicle type.

Next is the first of two Public Address Land Rovers. This is the green one with red interior and 'Vote for Corgi' on the sides. In the back is a politician, fixed on a rotating base, with a microphone and there is a free-standing girl handing out leaflets. Amusingly, the politician gets changed for a clown in 1965 and the girl becomes a chimpanzee for the Chipperfields Circus version.

A nice variation can be found with a yellow interior and this can be found both with and without a tin hook at the back.

The next issue was quite a surprise and it's one that I missed as a child. I remember one of my first searches when starting to rebuild my collection in 2012 was for a blue Mercedes-Benz 220SE, using catalogue number #230. Only then did I realise that this edition was quite different. The obvious change is the lack of steering. That was such a shame as Corgi's steering was something I really liked but I have to assume that the intricate production necessary for the steering mechanism was making #230 an insufficiently profitable model. It is also possible that Mercedes-Benz had been in touch to tell them that they had the boot shape wrong as that gets revised.

 

In place of steering, we get two cases in the boot, one of the opening ones and one small flat case. The spare wheel is retained.

There is an interesting variation with either yellow or cream interior in the blue model.

The red model is a quite delightful metallic cerise and quite distinct from the flat colour of the previous model. This seems always to have the yellow interior but I guess it would be entirely feasible for some to have had cream - I just haven't seen or heard of any to date.

Whereas the #230 models can be found with window units that do and don't incorporate a centre pillar at the side, the #253 models do seem all to have this feature.

All the Mercedes-Benz 220SE models have small shaped wheels.

A lovely model that I didn't miss and was very pleased to own and play with was the E Type Jaguar, #312. This came in liquid pale gold. There are shades of more silver colour too. This was #307 given an extended life with the new finish, a driver, racing stripe and wire wheels. It was only the third model to get these nice wheels (following the Buick Riviera and Chevrolet Sting Ray).

I have heard of variations with some bases having one rivet whereas all I have ever seen have had two. I need more information about this as a variation.

The fifth new issue this month 60 years ago was the first Minivan from Corgi. This was nicely presented in a box containing a tray with illustration and with a police dog-handler and police dog on a lead. 

A few models were issued with a tray that did not have an illustration attached and the surface uncoloured.

There are many variations. Whilst all the early editions will have shaped wheels, later models get cast wheels. The base can have either AUSTIN MINI - VAN, AUSTIN MINI VAN or AUSTIN MINI COUNTRYMAN. Whereas the later plain van can be found with different treatment of the grille, this Police edition seems always to have the simple and unpainted grille.

The interior window unit is slightly different to that fitted to the plain van which is issued a few months later and you may find these get interchanged, the police one having cross-hatching on the inside panel and the van doesn't have that section at all.